What have you got for me lately?

We were out of town for the holiday and we missed all the crazy snowy Seattle weather. I had asked a neighbor to collect our mail while we were gone but because of the weather, they didn't deliver - that's how bad it was! It all got delivered today and here's what was in it:

1 Playtex BPA-free bottle
1 Orville Redenbacher's Natural popcorn plus $1.50/2 coupon
1 Free Genesis Juice coupon which also included 1 free container of Toby's Salad Dressing and Toby's Tofu Pate. Not a big pate person but I'll try anything for free!

Most exciting for me was the Pillsbury recipe and coupon book. It is awesome! Includes yummy-looking recipes that I can't wait to try and best of all, $10 worth of coupons for Pillsbury and other General Mills products. You really can't go wrong with this deal. You can still sign up for it here:

Try Something New - Veggie Crisps

I've mentioned that we get the majority of our produce from a local Community Supported Agriculture farm. Sometimes we get to try a new or unusual vegetable or fruit. Last week, we got kale. I can't remember ever eating kale before in my life. It looks like you could make a hearty salad out of it but a raw bite of it did not appeal to my salad taste buds.

I remembered seeing a Martha Stewart episode where she baked up some crispy curly kale that looked fun. A search of her website unfortunately yielded no results. So a quick Swagbucks search brought me to Mollie Katzen's website - Mollie is a well-known vegetarian cook and author of the famous Moosewood cookbooks. I used her simple instructions and added garlic salt because I like garlic salt.

All you do is pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Chop off the stems of the kale. I chopped fairly small pieces and left the middle parts in but if you want to use as more of a chip you could chop bigger pieces, and remove the middles. Line a baking sheet with foil and brush or spread 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Spread the kale on top of the oil and using a spatula, mix it so that the kale gets some of the oil. Sprinkle with garlic or other seasoning and put in the oven. I put it in for 10 minute intervals, then turning/mixing to ensure that the crisps are evenly cooked. Bake for a total of 30 minutes until kale are crisp. Cool and serve!

Mine wasn't curly but it baked up quite nicely and although it doesn't look all that pretty, they are actually very crisp and different. Tell your family to close their eyes to try it. These offer a change of pace from your usual chips and I will serve these in the future with maybe a light spinach dip, or other creamy dip. These might also be good sprinkled on top of mashed potatoes or other side dishes.

The Grocery Cart Challenge has done it again - lots of great recipes in the weekly swap, fresh ideas for the New Year! Head on over there to check it out.

I hope everyone is enjoying this special holiday with family and friends. My parents weathered the brutal Seattle weather to come up to the mountains and we had an early Christmas dinner with them last night. My husband's family was all snowed in so we miss them today. It was a chaotic gift opening this morning but we are now relaxing and just enjoying the day.

I will be posting another great recipe tomorrow and posting regularly again next week. Safe travels to all and peace be with you!

Credit Cards - Why They Work For Me

A lot of frugal websites are families who are already debt-free, who live on less and I would guess the majority are those who don't use credit cards at all as part of their personal financial plans. Most financial planners and advisors do not advocate the use of credit cards at all.

I have a confession to make: I have credit cards. AND I use my credit cards as part of my financial plans and as part of my budget.

Here's what I do and why:

1) I only use cards that give me something back. For most everyday expenses, I use 2 cards: an Alaska Air Visa and Discover.

What do I get? 1 mile for every dollar spent on the Alaska card and additional miles when purchasing tickets on Alaska Air. They often have promo periods where you earn 2 miles for every dollar on Alaska tickets. We have earned a TON of miles this way.

My kids' daycare accepts no credit cards other than Discover, so I earn money back for all I spend on that huge expense. Discover offers a paltry 1% cash back in general. However, four times per year they run promotional periods where you can earn 5% cash back as a bonus in different spending categories. For example, October 1 through December 31 I earn 5% at all grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters and movie rentals. Although I've been cutting my grocery bills dramatically thanks to couponing and wise shopping, I'm also earning when I spend.

2) Pay balances in full every month. This has not always been the case but I save all my receipts and I diligently keep track of billing periods to make sure that I have enough to cover the whole month's expenses.

3) Use a card that gives you get an extra discount. Macy's is one example of this, they always seem to have an extra 15% or 20% off "when you use your Macy's card." Often this even applies to clearance merchandise. Since I already have the cash saved for these purchases, I pay the balance in full when the bill comes. This extra discount can really make the difference. We used these special discount days to buy furniture quite a few years ago, turning a large expense into a lesser one just by using the card.

Do I sometimes forget about purchases? Yes. Unfortunately, I am not one of those write everything down people - I wish I was! But I also confess that I pad my budget a bit for over the amount that I will actually need. That way I still have enough to pay off the balance in full every month.

Other frugalistas may disagree with these reasons but it works for me and I am earning either cash back (albeit not at an extraordinary rate, but something nonetheless) or mileage, which helps us vacation more frugally.

So even though I am working toward a Debt Free 2009, I will continue to use my credit cards as long as they continue to help me save. What about you? Take my poll above or leave me a comment with your thoughts on the credit card debate.